Mexico, U.S. Discuss NAFTA Impact 


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Mexico, U.S. Discuss NAFTA Impact 

By Ben Fox
Associated Press Writer
Wednesday, June 2, 1999; 4:33 p.m. EDT

TIJUANA, Mexico (AP) -- Sewage leaks. Traffic-clogged roads. Housing
shortages. These are issues normally dealt with by city councils, not
cabinet secretaries and congressmen. 

But high-level U.S. and Mexican officials started a two-day meeting here
Wednesday to discuss such negative aspects of the North America Free Trade
Agreement and the business opportunities available for those willing to
resolve them. 

``I think NAFTA has been very good for both the U.S. and Mexico,'' U.S. 
Energy Secretary Bill Richardson told a group of reporters in Spanish.
``It has brought jobs and a huge amount of progress to the border, but ...
now we're dealing with the problems of traffic and the environment.''

Richardson was joined at the U.S.-Mexico Border Infrastructure Conference
by U.S.  Commerce Secretary William Daley, California Gov. Gray Davis,
Mexico Trade Minister Herminio Blanco and San Diego Congressman Bob
Filner.

The officials did not criticize NAFTA, which is credited with helping to
double cross-border trade since 1993. But leaders from both sides say the
booming economy it has created also is straining the basic infrastructure
linking the two nations.

The conference focuses on ways the government and private businesses can
improve or build roads, bridges, wastewater treatment plants and utilities
along the 2,000-mile border stretching from the Pacific Ocean to the Gulf
Mexico.

Daley announced a federal grant of nearly $870,000 to expand roads at the
Otay Mesa border crossing in San Diego County, where trucks back up every
day entering and leaving Mexico. 

There was also a groundbreaking ceremony for the expansion of a sewage
treatment plant in Tijuana, a $20 million project funded by both counties.

Another issue is the housing shortage in Tijuana, Blanco said. Mexicans
who travel to Baja California looking for work at the dozens of
maquiladoras, the border factories created by NAFTA, often can't find a
place to live. The population of Tijuana has grown to more than 1 million
people, but available housing hasn't kept pace. Many people are forced to
live in makeshift, hillside shacks, he said. Daley said he hopes the
conference will entice construction and energy companies to invest in the
region. The meeting was attended by several hundred business leaders from
both sides of the border.

Davis mentioned two San Diego-based companies that have already committed
to spending $1 billion each in Mexico over the next five years. 

Sempra Energy plans to provide natural gas to businesses and homes in the
border region, while Leap Wireless International is working with Pegaaso
PCS to establish a national wireless phone network in Mexico.

(c) Copyright 1999 The Associated Press
 
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